Small Towns See A 'Brain Gain' As People Grow Tired Of Cities▼

Life in small-town America is often painted as boring even bleak. Boarded-up storefronts. No young people. No jobs. Closed schools. Places with a lot of yesteryears and no tomorrows. Some stats back up that story. Consider these four facts from The New York Times, with the headline "The Hard Truths of Trying to Save the Rural Economy": The median age is 43, seven years older than urban residents. Productivity is lower than in urban America. Families have lower incomes. The United States has grown by 75 million people since 1990, but most of that was in cities and suburbs. Rural areas have lost about 3 million people. But don't despair, rural-ites, change is afoot or at least there appear to be pockets of promise. Take population . Nationwide, rural areas, defined by the USDA as being outside cities and suburbs, gained population between 2016 and 2017 the first time in several years. They grew by roughly 33,000. Jackson County, Georgia, is an example. It's not too far from Atlanta and Athens, but still rural. Farm equipment manufacturing and distribution centers helped attract 2,500 residents, stopping losses seen as recently as 2013. Source